The Great Ping Pong Scam

The Great Ping Pong Scam

    I'll be honest, I liked this one. It really plays to the shows strengths and creates a storyline that feels realistic with some creative liberties. 

   It starts with Tori talking to Robbie, Andre, and Cat. They allude to a ping-pong team they're a part of, and while Tori initially doubts them she ends up wanting to join- feeling that her 5 other (much more pleasant and interesting) friends are leaving her behind. It's a nice little story, and it works for two reasons:

   1. Tori is made to feel like an outsider at the school still. This works because Hollywood Arts simply functions well when it's a bit mysterious and has this grandeur to it. The idea of her friends being in a secret club without her has the same impact as if they were secretly wizards. It makes the school feel natural and less like it revolves around Tori. 

   2. It gives a lot of weight to the 5 other members of the cast. For one of the first times in this show they really feel like a group of friends who have fun together and have known eachother for years before Tori. 

  So anyway. Tori ends up trying out for the team. The captain (Jade) denies her entry, and I almost don't blame her. This has been her and her friend's group for 2 years. No one seems to particularly want Tori. Despite this Tori (who in hindsight is generally just a bad person at this point) sneaks into the club room to eavesdrop on her friends hanging out. They discover her, and recount the 'secret' of the Ping Pong team in series of little flashbacks: The team doesn't actually compete, they simply buy trophies with part of the endowment the school gives them and then uses the rest to get a nice dinner. It's a fun idea, and provides even more rationale onto why Tori can't join (they would have to pay for her dinner too, then). Despite this, Tori just blackmails them into letting her join or else she'll tell on them. Literally why are any of these people friends with Tori.

  At this point the episode should be more or less over, but in an odd twist we actually see them going out to dinner with Sikowitz. Robbie orders $600 worth of caviar on accident - which probably wouldn't be a huge deal but now they have to also pay for Tori's dumb ass.  

Sikowitz dines and dashes just as some middle aged man acting for the first time in his life says "We don't have music!?! These people are getting upset! They come here for the classy music!". Wow, I wonder what will happen next. Take your pick:

A.) The group brainstorms a well thought out and clever way to pay the restaurant back 

B.) The group follows suit with Sikowitz and slowly escapes the restaurant, maybe leaving Robbie.

C.) Tori solves everything with the power of song and dance.

It's the last one.

Tori says "I can perform!" and this dude says sure and offers to apparently waive a $600 fee for a single song performed by a 17 year old. She performs some duet laying on top of a piano and the entire restaurant, (including several grown men who apparently own the place) jive to it and are so entranced by it in a way that makes me deeply uncomfortable.  

   So this should be a really great episode and set the benchmark for what an episode of this show should look like, but the last 6 minutes are so are the most awkwardly ham handed way to end the episode with Tori singing a song. It seems clear to me that Dan really wanted this show to sell loads of albums and function like an ensemble version of Hannah Montana, but it never quite feels natural.

  Despite this, the first half is very good- and I often wish the ping pong rec room would be brought back as a hangout spot for the group as an iconic location for the show. The last 6 minutes should have been scrapped with the flashback scenes being the main focus of the episode- but oh well. Still a solid and very memorable episode.

8/10